upon tables of Stone whereas this New Covenant is set forth in living characters imprinted upon the Vital powers of mens Souls as we have ver 10 11. This is the Covenant that I will make c. I will put my Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts and therefore the Old Covenant is v. 7. said not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unblamable or faultless thing because it was not able to keep off trangressions or hinder the violation of it self no more then an Inscription upon some Pillar or Monument is able to inspire life into those that read it and converse with it the Old Law or Covenant being in this respect no other then all other Civil Constitutions are which receive their efficacy merely from the willing compliance of mens Minds with them so that they must be enlivened by the Subject that receivs them being dead things in themselves But the Evangelical or New Law is such a thing as is an Efflux of life and power from God himself the Original thereof produceth life wheresoever it comes And to this double Dispensation viz. of Law and Gospel doth S. Paul clearly refer 2 Cor. 3. 3. You are the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of Stone which last words are a plain Gloss upon that mundane kind of administring the Law in a mere External way to which he opposeth the Gospel And this Argument he further pursues in the 7 and 8 chapters of the Epistle to the Romans in which last chap. v. 2. he stiles the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of the spirit of life which was able to destroy the power of Sin and to introduce such a spiritual and heavenly frame of Soul into men as whereby they might be enabled to express a chearfull compliance with the Law of God and demonstrate a true heavenly conversation and God-like life in this world We read in Iamblichus and others of the many preparatory Experiments used by Pythagoras to try his Scholars whether they were fit to receive the more sublime and sacred pieces of his Philosophy and that he was wont to communicate these only to Souls in a due degree purified and prepared for such doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what did all this signifie but only this that he might by all these Methods work and mold the Minds of his Hearers into such a fit Temper as that he might the better stamp the Seal of his more Divine Doctrine upon them and that his Discourses to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things just and lovely and good might be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly and really in the Soul that I may use Plato's words in his Phaedrus where he commends the Impressions of Truth which are made upon mens Souls above all outward Writings which he therefore compares to dead pictures By this we see what the wisest and best Philosophers thought of this Internal writing But it peculiarly belongs to God to write the Laws of Goodness in the Tables of mens hearts All the outward Teachings of men are but dead things in themselves But God's imprinting his Mind and Will upon mens hearts is properly that which is called the Teaching of God and then they become living Laws written in the living Tables of mens Hearts fitted to receive and retain Divine impressions I shall only adde that speech of a Chymist not impertinent in this place Non tam discendo quà m patiendo divina perficitur Mens humana And that we may come a little nearer to these words upon which all this present Discourse is built this seems to be the Scope of his argument in this place where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law of righteousness may fairly be parallel'd with that which before he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of the spirit and which he therefore calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of faith because it is received from God in a way of believing For I cannot easily think that he should mean nothing else in this place but merely the Righteousness of Justification as some would perswade us but rather that his Sense is much more comprehensive so as to include the state of Gospel-dispensation which includes not only Pardon of sins but an Inward spirit of Love Power and of a sound Mind as he expresseth it 2 Tim. 1. 7. And this he thus opposeth to the Law Rom. 10. 6 c. But the Righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into heaven c. or Who shall descend into the deep But what saith it The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach In which words Cunaeus in his De Repub. Hebr. would have us to understand some Cabbala or Tradition amongst the Jews for this meaning of that place Deut. 30. 12. from which these words are borrowed which as they there stand seem not to carry that Evangelical sense which here S. Paul expounds them into though yet Cunaeus hath not given us any reason for this opinion of his But indeed the Jewish writers generally who were acquainted with the principles of the Cabbala commenting upon that place do wholly refer it to the Times of the Messiah making it parallel with that place of Jeremy which defines the New Covenant to be a writing of the Law of God in mens hearts And thus that Life and Salvation that results from the Righteousness of Faith is all as Faith it self is deriving from God gratuitously dispensing himself to the Minds of men Whereas if Life could have been by the Law it s Original and Principal must have been resolved into men themselves who must have acted that dead matter without them and have produced that Virtue and Energy in it by their exercising themselves therein which of it self it had not as the Observance of any Law enables that Law it self to dispense that Reward which is due to the observance of it and therefore the Righteousness of the Law was so defin'd that he that did those things should live in them And thus the New Testament every where seems to present to us this twofold Dispensation or Oeconomy the one consisting in an External and written law of Precepts the other in Inward life and power Which S. Austin hath well pursued in his Book de Litera Spiritu from whom Aquinas who endeavours to tread in his foot-steps seems to have taken first of all an occasion of moving that Question Utrum Lex nova sit lex scripta vel lex indita and thus resolves it That the New Law or Gospel is not properly lex scripta as the Old was but Lex indita and that the Old Law is foris scripta the other intus scripta written in the tables of the Heart Now from all this we may easily
assimilant formam cum formante eam But in case the Imaginative facultie be not thus set forth as the Scene of all Prophetical illumination but that the Impressions of things nakedly without any Schemes or Pictures be made immediately upon the Understanding it self then is it reckoned to be the gradus Mosaicus wherein God speaks as it were face to face of which more hereafter Accordingly R. Albo in the Book before cited and 10 th Chapter hath distinguished Prophesie into these four degrees The first and lowest of all is when the Imaginative power is most predominant so that the impressions made upon it are too busie the Scene becomes too turbulent for the Rational facultie to discern the true Mystical and Anagogical sense of them clearly and in this case the Enthusiasms spend themselves extreamly in Parables Similitudes and Allegories in a dark and obscure manner as is very manifest in Zachary and many of Ezechiel his Prophesies as also those of Daniel where though we have first the outward frame of things Dramatically set forth so potently in the Prophet's phansie as that his Mind was not at the same time capable of the mystical meaning yet that was afterward made known to him but yet with much obscuritie still attending it This declining state of Prophesie the Jews supposed then principally to have been and this Divine illumination to have been then setting in the Horizon of the Jewish Church when they were carried captive into Babylon All which we may take a little more fully from our Author himself in his 3. Book and 17. Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Every Prophet that is of a strong fagacious and piercing Understanding will apprehend the thing nakedly without any Similitude whence it comes to pass that all his sayings prove distinct and clear and free from all obscuritie having a literal truth in them But a Prophet of an inferior rank or degree his words are obscure enwrapp'd in Riddles and Parables and therefore have not a Literal but Allegorical truth contained in them Thus he And so afterwards according to the general opinion of the Jewish Masters he tells us that after the Captivity in the twilight of Prophesie Ezekiel began to speak altogether in Riddles and Parables and so he himself complains to God Ah Lord God they say of me Doth he not speak Parables The second degree which our forementioned Author makes of Prophesie is when the strength of the Imaginative and Rational powers equally ballance one another The third is when the Rational power is most predominant in which case as we heard before the Minde of the Prophet is able to strip those things that are represented to it in the glass of Phansie of all their materiality and sensible nature and apprehend them more distinctly in their own naked Essence The last and Highest is the gradus Mosaicus in which all Imagination ceaseth the Representation of Truth descends not so low as the Imaginative part but is made in the highest stage of Reason and Understanding But we shall hereafter speak more fully concerning the several degrees of Prophetical Inspiration and discourse more particularly of the Ruach hakkodesh the highest degree of Prophesie or gradus Mosaicus and Bath col or the lowest degree of Prophesie Seeing then that generally all Prophesie or Prophetical Enthusiasm lies in the joint-impressions and operations of both these forementioned faculties the Jews were wont to understand that place Numb 12. 6 c. as generally decyphering that State or Degree of Prophesie by which God would discover himselfe to all those Prophets that ever should arise up amongst them or ever had been except Moses and the Messiah And there are only these Two waies declared whereby God would reveal himself to every other Prophet either in a Vision or a Dream both which are perpetually attended with those Visa and Simulacra sensibilia as must needs be impressed upon Common sense or Fansie whereby the Prophets seemed to have all their Senses waking and exercising their several functions though indeed all was but Scenicall or Dramatical According to this Twofold way of Divine inspiration the Prophet Joel foretells the Nature of that Prophetical Spirit that should be powred out in the latter times and in Jeremy 14. 14. we have the false prophets brought in as endeavouring apishly to imitate the true Prophets of God in fortifying their Fansies by the power of Divination that they might talk of Dreams and Visions when they came among the people Now for the Difference of these two a Dream and a Vision it seems rather to lie in Circumstantials then in any thing Essential therefore Maim part 2. More Nev. cap. 45. tells us that in a Dream a voice was frequently heard which was not usual in a Vision But the representation of Divine things by some Sensible images or some Narrative voice must needs be in both of them But yet the Jews are wont to make a Vision superiour to a Dream as representing things more to the life which indeed seizeth upon the Prophet while he is awake but it no sooner surpriseth him but that all his external senses are bound and so it often declines into a true Dream as Maimon in the place forenam'd proves by the example of Abraham Gen. 15. 12. where the Vision in which God had appeared to him as it is related ver 1. passed into a Sleep And when the Sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and loe an horror of great darkness fell upon him Which words seem to be nothing else but a description of that passage which he had by Sleep out of his Vision into a Dream Now these Ecstatical impressions whereby the Imagination and Mind of the Prophet was thus ravish'd from it self and was made subject wholy to some Agent intellect informing it and shining upon it I suppose S. Paul had respect to 1 Cor. 13. Now we see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a glass in riddles or parables for so he seems to compare the Highest illuminations which we have here with that constant Irradiation of the Divinity upon the Souls of men in the life to come and this glassing of Divine things by Hieroglyphicks and Emblems in the Fansie which he speaks of was the proper way of Prophetical inspiration For the further clearing of which I shall take notice of one passage more out of a Jewish writer that is R. Bechai concerning this present argument which I find Com. in Num. 12. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Voluit Deus assimilare Prophetiam reliquorum Prophetarum homini speculum inspicienti prout innuunt Rabbini nostri illo axiomate proverbiali Nemo inspiciat speculum Sabbato illud speculum est vitreum in quo reflectitur homini sua ipsius forma imago per vim reflexivam speculi cum revera nihil ejusmodi in speculo realiter existat Talis erat Prophetia reliquorum Prophetarum eo quòd contuebantur sacras
Eusebius tells us of one Quadratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who together with the daughters of Philip had the gift of Prophesie So the report was This Quadratus as he tells us lived in Trajan's time which was but at the beginning of the second Century And a little after speaking of good men in that age he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many strange and admirable virtues of the Divine Spirit as yet shewed forth themselves by them And the same Author lib. 4. § 18. tells us out of Justin Martyr who lived in the middle of the second Century and then writ his Apologie for the Christians That the Gift of Prophesie was still to be seen in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet not long afterward there is little or no remembrance of the Prophetical spirit remaining in the Church Hence the Montanists are by some of the Fathers proved to be no better then Dissemblers when they pretended to the Gift of Prophesie for that it was then ceased in the Church And so Eusebius tells us lib. 5. § 3. and withall that Montanus and his Complices only took advantage of that Virtue of working wonders which yet appeared as was reported though doubtfully in some places to make a semblance of the Spirit of Prophesie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But then especially did Montanus Alcibiades and Theodotus raise up in many an opinion that they prophesied And this belief was so much the more increased concerning their prophesying for that as yet in several Churches were wrought many Miraculous and Stupendious effects of the Holy Spirit though yet there was no perfect agreement in their opinion about this To conclude this and to hasten to an End of this Discourse of Prophesie There is indeed in Antiquity more frequent mention of some Miracles wrought in the name of Christ but less is said concerning the Prophetical Virtue especially after the second Century That it was rare and to be seen but sometimes and more obscurely in some few Christians only who had attained to a good degree of Self-purification is intimated by that of Origen in his 7 th Book against Celsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XIII Some Rules and Observations concerning Prophetical Writ in general WE should now shut up all this Discourse about Prophesie only before we conclude it may not be amiss to add a few Rules for the better understanding of Prophetical Writ in general 1. The First which yet we shall rather put under debate is concerning the Style and Manner of languaging all pieces of Prophesie whether that was not peculiarly the work of the Prophet himself whether it does not seem that the Prophetical Spirit dictated the Matter only or principally yet did leave the words to the Prophet himself It may be considered that God made not use of Idiots or Fools to reveal his Will by but such whose Intellectuals were entire and perfect and that he imprinted such a clear copy of his Truth upon them as that it became their own Sense being digested fully into their Understandings so as they were able to deliver and represent it to others as truly as any can paint forth his own Thoughts If the Matter and Substance of things be once lively in the Mind verba non invita sequentur And according as that Matter operates upon the Mind and Phantasie so will the Phrase and Language be in which it is express'd And therefore I think to doubt whether the Prophets might not mistake in representing the Mind of God in their Prophetical Inspirations except all their Words had been also dictated to them is to question whether they could speak Sense as wise men and tell their own Thoughts and Experiences truly or not And indeed it seems most agreeable to the nature of all these Prophetical Visions and Dreams we have discoursed of wherein the nature of the Enthusiasme consisted in a Symbolical and Hieroglyphical shaping forth of Intelligible things in their Imaginations and enlightning the Understanding of the Prophets to discern the scope and meaning of these Visa or Phantasmata that those Words and Phrases in which they were audibly express'd to the Hearers afterwards or penned down should be the Prophets own For the Matter was not as seems evident from what hath been said represented alwaies by Words but by Things Though I know that sometime in these Visions they had a Voice speaking to them yet it is not likely that Voice should so dilate and comment so largely upon things as it was fit the Prophet should doe when he repeated the same things to vulgar ears It may also further be considered That our Saviour and his Apostles generally quote Passages out of the Old Testament as they were translated by the Lxx and that where the Lxx have not rendered them verbatim but have much varied the manner of phrasing things from the Original as hath been abundantly observed by Philologers Which it is not likely they would have done had the Original words been the very Dictate of the Spirit for certainly that would seem not to need any such Paraphrastical variations as being of themselves full and clear enough besides herein they might seem to weaken the Authenticalness of the Divine Oracles And indeed hath not the swerving from this Notion made some of late conceit though erroneously the Translation of the Lxx to be more Authentical then the Hebrew which they would needs perswade us had been corrupted by the Jews our Saviour declining the Phraseologie thereof Besides we find the Prophets speaking every one of them in his own Dialect and such a Varietie of Style and Phraseologie appears in their Writings as may argue them to have spoken according to their own proper Genius which is observed by the Jews themselves who are most zealously as is well known devoted to the very Letter of the Text in all the Prophets except Moses and that part of Moses only which contains the Decalogue And hence we have that Rule Gem. Sanhedr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same form doth not ascend upon two Prophets neither doe both of them prophesie in the same form Which Rule Cocceius confesseth he knows not the meaning of But Abarbanel who better understood the Mind of his own Compatriots in his Comment upon Jeremy ch 49. gives us a full account of it upon occasion of some Phrases in that Prophesie concerning Edom parallel to what we find in Obadiah From this congruencie of the Style in both he thus takes occasion to lay down our present Notion as the Sense of that former Theorem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prophets did not prophesie in the same manner as Moses did For he prophesied from God immediately from whom he received not only the Prophesie but also the very Words and Phrases and accordingly as he heard them so he wrote them in the Book of the Law in the very same words which he heard from God but as for the rest of the Prophets they beheld in
that Maxime we now speak of ascribed to R. Jochanan in Massec Berac c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Prophets prophesied to the daies of the Messiah but as for the world to come Eye hath not seen it So they constantly expound that passage in Esay 64. 4. Since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the Eare neither hath the Eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him And according to this Aphorisme our Saviour seems to speak when he saies All the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John Mat. 11. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. They prophesied to or for that Dispensation which was to begin with John who lived in the time of the twilight as it were between the Law and the Gospel They prophesied of those things which should be accomplished within the period of Gospel-Dispensation which was usher'd in by John As for the state of Blessedness in Heaven it is major Mente humanâ much more is it major Phantasia But of this in part heretofore An Advertisement THE Reader may remember That our Author in the beginning of his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul propounded these Three great Principles of Religion to be discoursed of 1. The Immortalitie of the Soul 2. The Existence and Nature of God 3. The Communication of God to Mankind through Christ. And having spoken largely to the Two former Principles of Natural Theology he thought it fit as a Preparation to the Third which imports the Revelation of the Gospel to speak something concerning Prophesie the way whereby Revealed Truth is dispensed to us Of this he intended to treat but a little they are his words in the beginning of the Treatise of Prophesie and then pass on to the Third and Last part viz. Those Principles of Revealed Truth which tend most of all to advance and cherish true and real Piety But in his discoursing of Prophesie so many considerable Enquiries offered themselves to his thoughts that by that time he had finished this Discourse designed at first only as a Preface his Office of being Dean and Catechist in the Colledge did expire Thus far had the Author proceeded in that year of his Office and it was not long after that Bodily distempers and weaknesses began more violently to seize upon him which the Summer following put a Period to his life here a life so every way beneficial to those who had the happiness to converse with him Sic multis ille bonis flebilis occidit Thus he who designed to speak of God's Communication of Himself to Mankind through Christ was taken up by God into a more inward and immediate participation of Himself in Blessedness Had he liv'd and had health to have finish'd the remaining part of his designed Method the Reader may easily conceive what a Valuable piece that Discourse would have been Yet that he may not altogether want the Authors labours upon such an Argument I thought good in the next place to adjoine a Discourse of the like importance and nature delivered heretofore by the Author in some Chappel-Exercises from which I shall not detain the Reader by any more of Preface A DISCOURSE Treating Of LEGAL Righteousness EVANGELICAL Righteousness Or The Righteousness of FAITH The Difference between the LAW and the GOSPEL OLD and NEW COVENANT JUSTIFICATION and DIVINE ACCEPTANCE The CONVEIGHANCE of the EVANGELICAL Righteousness to us by FAITH Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven Matth. 5. 20. Having a form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof 2 Tim. 3. 5. For the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did Heb. 7. 19. B. Macarius in Homil. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Discourse Of LEGAL Righteousness and of The Righteousness of FAITH c. Rom. 9. 31 32. But Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness Wherefore Because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the Law CHAP. I. The Introduction shewing What it is to have a right Knowledge of Divine Truth and What it is that is either Availeable or Prejudicial to the true Christian Knowledge and Life THE Doctrine of Christian Religion propounded to us by our Saviour and his Apostles is set forth with so much simplicity and yet with so much repugnancy to that degenerate Genius and Spirit that rules in the hearts and lives of Men that we may truly say of it it is both the Easiest and the Hardest thing it is a Revelation wrapt up in a Complication of mysteries like that Book of the Apocalypse which both unfolds and hides those great Arcana that it treats of or as Plato sometimes chose so to explain the secrets of his Metaphysical or Theological Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he that read might not be able to understand except he were a Son of Wisdome and had been train'd up in the knowledge of it The Principles of True Religion are all in themselves plain and easie deliver'd in the most familiar way so that he that runs may read them they are all so clear and perspicuous that they need no Key of Analytical demonstration to unlock them the Scripture being written doctis pariter indoctis and yet it is Wisdome in a mystery which the Princes of this world understand not a sealed Book which the greatest Sophies may be most unacquainted with it is like that Pillar of Fire and of a Cloud that parted between the Israelites and the Egyptians giving a clear and comfortable light to all those that are under the manuduction and guidance thereof but being full of darkness and obscurity to those that rebell against it Divine Truth is not to be discerned so much in a mans Brain as in his Heart Divine wisdome is a Tree of life to them that find her and it is only Life that can feelingly converse with Life All the thin Speculations and subtilest Discourses of Philosophy cannot so well unfold or define any Sensible Object nor tell any one so well what it is as his own naked Sense will doe There is a Divine and Spiritual sense which only is able to converse internally with the life and soul of Divine Truth as mixing and uniting it self with it while vulgar Minds behold only the body and out-side of it Though in it self it be most intelligible and such that mans Mind may most easily apprehend yet there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrew writers call that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incrustamentum immunditiei upon all corrupt Minds which hinders the lively taste and relish of it This is that thick and palpable Darkness which cannot comprehend that divine Light that shines in the Minds and Understandings of all men but makes them to deny that very Truth which they seem to